Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly launched a website aimed at curbing gun violence Tuesday, the second anniversary of the mass shooting in Arizona that left her critically wounded. "Two years ago, a mentally ill young man shot me in the head, killed six of my constituents, and wounded 12 others," Giffords wrote on the website. "Since that terrible day, America has seen 11 more mass shootings -- but no response from Congress to prevent gun violence." The website, titled "Americans for Responsible Solutions", also features an opinion article that the couple penned, which was published by...

Former US Representative Gabrielle Giffords will visit Newtown, Conn., the site of last month's deadly shooting in which 20 first graders were killed. Giffords survived a mass shooting in her home state of Arizona two years ago... ... Giffords plans to attend a private event at a local home on Friday, Steven Jensen, spokesman for Lieutenant Governor Nancy Wyman, said in an email. The event will have no media access and Giffords' plans are still developing and may change

The husband of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords ripped the National Rifle Association (NRA) on Friday for a press conference that defied “common sense” and defended “extreme pro-gun positions.” “Gabby and I are extremely disappointed by the NRA's defiant and delayed response to the massacre of 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School,” Mark Kelly said in a statement. “The NRA could have chosen to be a voice for the vast majority of its own members who want common-sense, reasonable safeguards on deadly firearms, but instead it chose to defend extreme pro-gun positions that aren't even popular among...

The federal judge who sentenced former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' gunman is advocating a nationwide ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines to take the "mass out of mass shootings." "There is just no reason civilians need to own assault weapons and high-capacity magazines," Judge Larry Allan Burns wrote in Thursday's Los Angeles Times. Since Jared Lee Loughner killed six people and wounded Giffords with his 31-round magazine Glock pistol, there have been six deadlier mass shootings, Burns wrote. "But reasonable, good-faith debates have boundaries, and in the debate about guns, a high-capacity magazine has always seemed to me beyond them,"...

The Congressional District 2 showdown between Republican Martha McSally and Democrat Ron Barber has gone into overtime - and it could come down to instant replay. McSally holds a minuscule lead of less than two-tenths of a percentage point over Barber - a 400-vote difference in a race in which more 228,000 votes have been tabulated, with several days of additional vote counting to go. What remains are an estimated 70,000 votes in Pima County, about 27,000 of them provisional ballots that need to be verified and the rest early ballots that were dropped off at polling places or delivered...

The suspect in a shooting that left a U.S. congresswoman wounded pleaded guilty Tuesday to going on the rampage that killed six other people. The plea spares Jared Lee Loughner the death penalty in an attack that gained worldwide attention. The plea came soon after a federal judge had found that months of forcibly medicating Loughner to treat his schizophrenia had made the 23-year-old college dropout competent to understand the gravity of the charges against him and assist in his defense. At one point, Judge Larry A. Burns asked Loughner if he understood the charges against him and what the...

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- Jared Lee Loughner pleaded guilty Tuesday to going on a shooting rampage at a political gathering, killing six people and wounding his intended target, then-Congresswoman Gabriele Giffords, and 12 others. Loughner's plea spares him the death penalty and came soon after a federal judge found that months of forcibly medicating him to treat his schizophrenia had made the 23-year-old college dropout competent to understand the gravity of the charges and assist in his defense.

Jared Loughner, the young Tucson man accused of shooting Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killing six people, is set to plead guilty Tuesday, an official familiar with the case said Saturday. A psychologist appointed by the court is expected to say at the hearing that he is competent to plead guilty, the official said. A previously scheduled status hearing has been changed to a change-of-plea hearing. In February, the psychologist said Mr. Loughner, a diagnosed schizophrenic, remained incompetent to stand trial. But she said at the time that the defendant was making progress toward competency, according to federal Judge Larry A....

TUCSON, AZ (CBS5/AP) - It's a race for Congress that the entire nation has been watching, and we now know who will fill Gabrielle Gifford's House seat. Ron Barber, who worked as Giffords' aid and was injured in the Tucson shooting, is the winner of the District 8 race. He has about 52 percent of the votes; 86 percent of precincts have turned in their results. This race determines who will be representing Tucson for the next six months in Washington, DC. Right now, Barber has more than a 7 percent lead over Jesse Kelly, who ran against Giffords in...

Voters in Arizona were set to select a replacement for former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D) in a competitive special election on Tuesday, but late poll closings left the winner undetermined late Tuesday night.

The special election Tuesday to fill the House seat vacated by shooting victim Rep. Gabrielle Giffords is overshadowed by the memory of the tragedy, but the Republican has tried to make it about Obama's policies. Tucson, Ariz. In a closely-watched race, Arizona voters on Tuesday will choose a candidate to complete the remainder of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s term in Congress nearly 18 months after a gunshot wound to the head, which forced her to resign in January. The names on the ballot will be Ron Barber as the Democrat and Jesse Kelly as the Republican. But perhaps the two more...

The race, which has been under way since April, is between Republican nominee Jesse Kelly, a former Marine who ran against Giffords in 2010, and Ron Barber, Giffords’ former district director. Barber himself was injured in the shooting outside the Safeway grocery store on Jan. 8, 2011. He was shot in the leg and the cheek. Giffords has not been very present in Barber’s campaign. She was featured on a mailer paid for by the Democratic Party of Arizona, and she will be campaigning for the candidate this weekend. However, regardless of Giffords level of involvement, the race was never...

— Updated at 12:46 pm ET with a statement from Jesse Kelly's campaign. See end of post. — A PAC supporting Jesse Kelly, a former Marine running to replace Rep. Gabrielle Giffords in a special election on Tuesday, is using an image Kelly's campaign has avoided thus far — the candidate holding a gun. Kelly, a Republican, ran against Giffords, a Democrat, in 2010. Giffords resigned in January, just over a year after a shooting spree left six dead and the congresswoman critically wounded. Kelly's opponent this time is former Giffords aide Ron Barber, who was shot twice during the...

When it comes to President Barack Obama and the special House election to succeed Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, there’s the personal and then there’s the political. The personal: Days after bullets pierced his thigh and cheek in the shooting rampage last year that nearly took Giffords’s life, Ron Barber was paid a special bedside visit by the president and first lady Michelle Obama. But as Barber seeks the seat of his onetime boss in a June 12 special election, the Democrat is loath to mention Obama’s name let alone tout any bond they formed in the dark days after the shooting...

Arizona special election candidate Ron Barber, who talked around a debate question about who he's supporting in the presidential race, released a statement clarifying that he's an Obama guy. Here's the statement from spokeswoman Jessica Schultz: Ron’s point last night was that the election on June 12 isn't about president Obama, or any other national figure--it's about who is going to do the best job fighting for middle class families in southern Arizona. While Ron does not agree with the President on everything, of course Ron has supported and will support President Obama in the election. His primary focus as...

Voters in southern Arizona's 8th Congressional District on Tuesday night chose Republican Jesse Kelly to face former Gabrielle Giffords aide Ron Barber in a special election to replace the wounded ex-congresswoman.........

If we are to gauge the level of respect and honor in our civil society, we need only look to those we - or our elected representatives - consider deserving of special hero worship. Some of these high honors include the flying of Old Glory at half-staff, the honor of having Naval vessels named for an individual, or perhaps being the recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Considering several events of late, I can not help but think that the standards that our society deems iconic have hit some unacceptable lows. Three examples of late have had me shaking...

Retired Rear Admiral George Worthington, former commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command, told The Daily Caller that there are many people more worthy of a ship bearing their name. “Here is the issue. There are a lot of dead Marines out there whose names could go on anything that appears to be an amphibious ship,” he said, explaining that a past recipient of the Medal of Honor, Dakota Meyer, might be a good candidate. Worthington added his email “inbox” has been filled with messages from military friends who are “shocked and angered” by the decision. “We think fallen Marines...

The Secretary of the Navy announced on Friday that a new littoral combat ship will be named after former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The announcement comes the same day that President Obama signed the last piece of legislation sponsored by Giffords, a bill aimed at reducing drug trafficking along the American borders with Canada and Mexico. Giffords, who recently stepped down from office, was the target of a shooting rampage in early January 2011. “The name this ship bears and the story represented by that name will inspire all those who come in contact with her,” said Navy Secretary Ray...

Ron Barber, an aide to former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), will run for the House seat she just left. Barber, 66, was Giffords’ district director until she retired last month. He was shot twice, once in the face and once in the leg, in the massacre that left six dead and nearly killed his boss. “Our community needs someone who will put politics aside and solve problems for the people of Southern Arizona,” he said in a statement. “My commitment is to be honest with the people of this district and help restore civility to our public life.” The special...

President Obama is eyeing Arizona as one of the few Republican states he might flip in November, but to do that he might need the help of its brightest star: former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D). Whether Giffords will lend her considerable clout to the president’s reelection campaign remains an open — and exceedingly delicate — question.

All we need to know to know that tax reform will be a prominent part of the president’s speech tonight is that Warren Buffett’s secretary, Debbie Bosanek, will be in a box with the First Lady. Bosanek says she couldn’t sleep last night because she’s so excited — even though she knows she’ll have to wake up in time for a dawn flight tomorrow morning to be sure to report to work on time. Bosanek isn’t the only interesting guest on the list, though. The First Lady has also extended invitations to: Steve Jobs’ widow, Laurene Powell Jobs; outgoing Rep. Gabby Giffords’...

IT TOOK A MATTER of seconds during a gathering with constituents at a Tucson shopping center for Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’s (D-Ariz.) life to be profoundly transformed. Ms. Giffords was one of 19 people wounded or killed there last year, allegedly by a deranged young man who inflicted unspeakable damage with the help of a semi-automatic weapon and an extended magazine clip. The bullet that pierced Ms. Giffords’s head left her clinging to life; hers has been a remarkable rehabilitation over the past 12 months, during which she has learned to walk and speak again. * Ms. Giffords did not refer...

WASHINGTON -- Brady Campaign Acting President Dennis Henigan today issued the following statement in response to U. S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords’ announcement that she would resign her seat in Congress this week. "We understand but are deeply saddened by the news that Rep. Giffords has decided to resign her seat in Congress because of the demands of her continued rehabilitation from the gunshot wound she suffered a year ago in Tucson. Congress and the American people now have lost the service of another devoted public servant because of gun violence. It is sadly reminiscent of the nation's loss of Jim...

U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords will step down from Congress this week to focus on her recovery, her staff announced Sunday. "I have more work to do on my recovery, so to do what is best for Arizona, I will step down this week," Giffords said in a video message. Giffords, a third-generation Arizonan who served five years in the state Legislature before being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in November 2006, will not seek re-election this fall. Giffords vowed to return public service. "I will return and we will work together for Arizona and this great country," she...

Once again Liberal Democrats are trying to blame some of the violence that is going on in our nation on the Tea Party movement. Democrat Party Chairperson Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is the latest example. She “has refreshed the false and disgraceful meme that the Tea Party is at fault for the tragic Tucson shooting in 2011 that resulted in the death of six people,” The Washington Times reports. When Jimmy Hoffa Jr. said “Let’s take these son-of-a-bitches out and give America back to an America where we belong,” a reference to the Tea Party, she didn’t offer one word of protest....

Politics: The DNC's chairwoman, a champion of Occupy Wall Street, once again associates the tragedy in Tucson with an end to civil discourse caused by the grass-roots Tea Party movement. Has she no shame? There she goes again. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla, head of the Democratic National Committee and the "Debbie Downer" of American politics, has repeated the canard that somehow the shooting of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, D-Ariz., a year ago at a Tucson event is somehow linked to hatred spawned by the Tea Party. "We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of...

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., speaking in New Hampshire this morning, reminded her audience of the tragic Tucson shooting last year -- and also insinuated that the Tea Party, which she said regards political opponents as "the enemy," has enhanced divisiveness in Congress and had something to do with the shooting, at least indirectly. "We need to make sure that we tone things down, particularly in light of the Tucson tragedy from a year ago, where my very good friend, Gabby Giffords -- who is doing really well, by the way, -- [was shot]," Wasserman Schultz, the Democratic National Committee...

An elderly, former Marine who lost his wife of 54 years in the Tucson mass shootings expressed his anger at fellow victim and Congresswoman Gabbie Giffords. George Morris, 77, was shot in the leg and back in the attack just over a year ago as he tried to protect his wife from the gunman. Dorothy Morris, 76, was killed after the couple had gone to the Safeway supermarket to quiz Ms Giffords' political opinions. Mr Morris, who describes himself as 'ultra-conservative', even refused a visit from President Obama while he recovered in hospital following the shootings in Arizona. The couple...

Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords was shot in the head last Jan. 8, but the White House is downplaying the likelihood of any White House campaign-trail effort to restrict gun ownership. “I don’t have anything new for you,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said Thursday when asked about the anniversary. “It’s a solemn occasion. … It’s a remarkable recovery that Congresswoman Giffords has made, but we can never forget the lives lost on that day,” he added. President Barack Obama’s poll ratings are low, especially in swing-states, and he’s shown no willingness to publicly challenge or antagonize gun-owners or other critical...

President Obama reached out to Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) by telephone on the one-year anniversary of the Tucson shooting that severely wounded the Arizona congresswoman and left six people dead. According to a White House statement, the president told the Arizona Democrat that "he and the First Lady keep her, the families of the fallen, and the whole Tucson community in their daily thoughts and prayers and, along with the entire nation, continue to join her in mourning those lost."

On January 8 2011, a criminal named Jared Loughner opened fire on a crowd outside a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona. As a result, six people were killed and many others injured: among them, U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). What happened that day was a crime and a tragedy. And while it reminded sensible, salt-of-the-earth Americans of the need to arm ourselves to protect our families from criminals like Loughner, it has taught the left nothing. This is demonstrated by the fact that they have spent the months since January calling for more gun control while also doing their...

CNN host Piers Morgan spoke with Gabrielle Giffords‘s husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, on Wednesday and discussed Sarah Palin‘s controversial crosshair map, which targeted the Congresswoman’s district. Kelly wrote in a new book that the former Alaska governor never reached out to them. “We were never contacted by her,” Kelly said. “I find that extraordinary,” Morgan exclaimed. “Yeah, I was surprised too,” Kelly replied. “You know, certainly the targets that she put over Gabby’s and other people’s districts, in our opinion, was not the right thing to do. She is not the first person to do that. And it hasn’t always...

I have great respect for retired Navy Captain Mark Kelly’s service to this nation. I also admire the courage of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. See Thursday’s post, “God bless you, Gabrielle Giffords.” But I find Captain Kelly’s tactics for selling his new book to be insulting , misleading and plain out wrong. More than that it is disturbingly dishonorable. From the London Daily Mail: But it was the lack of any contact from former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin that was ‘surprising’ said Mr Kelly. Citing the book, Mr Morgan said that it revealed some ‘interesting insights’ into ‘political colleagues and...

I have great respect for retired Navy Captain Mike Kelly’s service to this nation. I also admire the courage of Democratic Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords. See Thursday’s post, “God bless you, Gabrielle Giffords.” But I find Captain Kelly’s tactics for selling his new book to be insulting , misleading and plain out wrong. More than that it is disturbingly dishonorable. From the London Daily Mail: But it was the lack of any contact from former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin that was ‘surprising’ said Mr Kelly. Citing the book, Mr Morgan said that it revealed some ‘interesting insights’ into ‘political colleagues and...

(Reuters) - Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords served a Thanksgiving meal on Thursday to Air Force personnel in her first constituent event since she was shot in the head in January, her office said. Giffords dished out turkey with tongs as she stood between Brigadier General Jon Norman and her husband Mark Kelly, said Giffords' spokesman Mark Kimble. The event at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base was expected to draw more than 400 people, mostly U.S. Air Force personnel, retired service members and their families. Giffords was shot on January 8 at an event for constituents at a Tucson supermarket. College dropout Jared...

If there was a point of no return for Sarah Palin — when the former Alaska governor irreversibly undermined herself as a potential presidential canedidate — it may have come in the aftermath of the attack on Gabrielle Giffords, when Palin taped a video calling it a "blood libel" to criticize her for having targeted the Arizona congresswoman's district with a crosshairs symbol online. In their new book, Giffords and her husband, Mark Kelly, make it clear that they objected to Palin's imagery themselves, and that Giffords raised concerns about it at the time: "She was troubled that her district...

COMMENTARY | The ABC News "20 20" special with Diane Sawyer that chronicled the struggle of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords to regain her faculties after a brain injury as the result of a shooting in January was-for the most part-heart-warming and inspirational. The documentary, which also contained the first public interview with Giffords since the shooting, was ruined by a gratuitous attack on tea party opponents of health care reform and on Sarah Palin toward the end of the one-hour special. A short segment showed Giffords confronting an angry crowd of constituents at a town hall meeting. Palin was shown briefly,...

— Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in her first public interview since she was shot in the head in Tucson last winter, doted on her husband, former astronaut Mark Kelly, and called him “brave, brave, brave” as she kissed his bald head. Giffords appears on ABC’s “20/20” show Monday night. It’s her first extended interview since the January rampage that killed six people and wounded 13. A segment that aired on “Good Morning America” shows a thin Giffords with a broad grin as she talks about Kelly. Her husband replied that the word “brave” was the same one that came to...

Obama claimed the Gabrielle Gifford assault, Brian Terry slaughter, should "at least be the beginning of a new discussion. Barack Hussein Obama to Sarah Brady "I just want you to know that we are working on [gun control]. ... We have to go through a few processes, but under the radar."

The Pima County Republican Party’s controversial gun raffle fundraiser was such a success that they ended up raffling off another weapon. The notoriety fueled such demand, said interim Chairman Mike Shaw, not only did the raffle for the Glock pistol sell out, but they subsequently raffled a deer rifle as well. The raffle garnered worldwide attention because it was organizes eight months after the Tucson shooting spree. The model of Glock is not the same as the one Jared Lee Loughner used in the Jan. 8, rampage. The gun used by Loughner was a Glock 19. The weapon being raffled...

In a unanimous vote, the Federal Election Commission on Thursday allowed Rep. Garbielle Giffords to use campaign funds to install enhanced security measures at her home. Giffords’ campaign asked the agency whether she may use campaign funds to defray the installation cost of additional security measures in her Tucson home. Giffords was recently transferred to outpatient rehabilitation, allowing her to return to her family home when not undergoing rehabilitative therapy from the gunshot wound she suffered. With Giffords’ recovery, the U.S. Capitol Police issued several recommendations to protect the congresswoman’s safety at home. The recommendations included improved exterior lighting, safety...

A late August newsletter from the Pima County Republican Party plugged an upcoming raffle with a questionable prize: a Glock handgun, not unlike the one Jared Loughner used to kill six people and wound thirteen others, including Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, in January. "Get yourself a new Glock 23 .40 cal handgun for just 10 bucks — if your name is drawn. That's right, for just 10 dollars this gun could be yours," reads the announcement, which comes complete with a picture of the shiny, black gun. There's also a reminder to act now: "Tickets will go quick for this firearm!"...

(Phoenix, AZ) -- A judge in Arizona rules that mental exams of accused Tuscon shooter Jared Loughner should not be videotaped. Loughner, 22, is accused of a mass shooting in which he allegedly tried to assassinate U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona. According to the New York Post, Loughner's lawyers filed a motion requesting Federal District Court Judge Larry Burns to order hospital officials at Springfield's Federal Medical Center to capture all clinical proceedings of Loughner's health. That was denied Thursday. The judge says there's no basis to question the impartiality of staff at FedMed.

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords returned to Washington, D.C. Monday, seven months after her tragic attack to cast her vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling. Her timing couldn't be better to unveil the absolutely relentless hypocrisy of left-wing media and politics. The vicious attack on Giffords sparked a whirlwind of criticism over the violent rhetoric of the right in which the media castigated the tea party for its tone. Sarah Palin was criticized relentlessly over a map depicting crosshairs over vulnerable democrats, similar to the DNC's use of targets on Republicans. Most heinously, Giffords' attacker, Jared Loughner, was assumed by...